Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-30
DAILY HERALD.
A Presidential Candidate as n
False RrOphet.

Senator sherman, during the Con-
gressional session of 1SS3-S4 made an
elaborate, able speech from his point
Of sight, touching the currency wants
Of the country and the proper course
to be followed for the preservation OF
the national bank system as an agency
for the issue of paper money, in which
he had occasion to refer to the
continuance of the enforced
coinage of the dollar of 4l21s
grains of silver nine-tenths fine, and
to assert that he regarded such coin
age altogether wrong in principle and
sure, in the end, to work mischief
but, at the same time, he frankly ad
mitted that the public opinion of the
country was inflexibly opposed to the
suspension of that coinage. These are
his exact words: AT present see NJ
hope for any solution Of the silvel
question. The state of public opinion
fully represented by Congress will no
allow the suspension of the coinage o
the silver dollar nor the adoption by
the United States of new ratio fol
the coinage of gold and silver accord
ing to the market value of the two
metals"
Having made so emphatic an ad-
miesion in effect that the decisive
majority of his countrymen favored
the continued coinage of silver at the
old ratio of 412H grains of silver as
the legal equivalent of 25 $40 grains
Of gold Mr.. Sherman, rather illogically,
il seems to us, for longtime candi-
date for the Presidency, must needs
go on to question and arraign the will
of the people in this connection, in
words which certainly have been
falsified by the financial history of
the country during the three years
and more which have elapsed since he
uttered them:
"All we can do-said the Senator
is to drift along until the inevitable
expectation Of gold and disappearance
from circulation, and its conversion
into an article of merchandise shall
reduce all value to the silver standard
when, no doubt, the practical good
sense of our people will lead them to
coin both metals according to their
value now, and not according to their
respective valuation years ago. l
would not allude to the sill
yer question at all except that
it is intimately connected with banks
and banking. 1t already casts its
shadow upon the future it is rapidly
converting our railroad securities into
bonds expressly payable in gold coin
II is creating distrust in investments
not made upon gold basis, which
nagacious men know will, by the
failure af a crop or of a banking house,
or some unforeseen event, suddenly
bring us to the silver standard. The
doubt will then arise-it has already
Arisen-whether in the adjustment of
= new ratio between gold and silver,
the quantity of silver in the dollar will
be increased, or the quantity of gold
will be reduced. One or the other
must be done.
"As the question is decided so will
the nominal price and value Of all
lands, commodities, Investments, Sc
curities and currency rise or fall. A
question 80 controlling as this does
win affect banks and banking in
all their phases and forms, but as
believe that it is utterly impossible at
this session to change the existing law
us to the coinage of silver, we must 60
on coming and piling up in the Treas
my vaults silver that we now buy at
. discount, which we cannot circulate,
and must sometime sell at a discount,
or reduce all other money to the same
standard. Until this standard is finally |
tettled, coin certificates are dangerous
forms of currency. While all certifi- !
Gates are as now, treated as gold GER
fificates, they will be freely taken as
to each other, but with the |
first appearance of difference in mar
ket value between gold and silver coin
the same difference will appear be-
tween gold and silver certificates, and |
the gold certificate will disappear from
and be boarded"
Now, since the foregoing speech was
made, despite repeated strenuous eff |
forts made in that body to suspend the !
further coinage of silver, "fully repre-
senting," as Senator Sherman admits,
the "public opinion of the country"
Congress has refused to do so, and the
coinage has gone on to such an extent
rs to add fully 100000, 900 standard
dollars to our currency, or about 81 20
per head of the population, since the
Senator uttered his warning
as to the mischievous consequences
which must rapidly ensue at
m early day, should such coinage
be continued. Now we ask in all can
dor, has q single one of his catalogue
OF predicted ills come to pass? Can it
he said with truth that our railroad
securities have generally been made
payable in gold?? Is there, in fact, as
much clamor here in the East, to-day,
against silver coinage as there was in
1883? Or the least genuine apprehen-
sion OF general disturbance of prices
and values due essentially to the use
Of silver as money to the petty extent
involved by our yearly additional sum
uf less than GO cents per head of the
population?
The difference between the market
value of silver and its legal tender
value in the standard dollar is mater
tally greater than it was in 1888, when |
Senator Sherman spoke and yet, in
stead OF the boarding of the gold cer-
hficates, much greater use is made |
of them in the payments of duties at |
the custom houses than of silver GER
tificates, which have become a very
popular form of currency. That |
is to say, for example, here
in New York, while on an
average every week 1914 per cent. of |
Al the duties are being paid with gold
certificates, barely l0A per cent. are
maid with silver certificatas and otand |
ard dollars. In the same direction we
might multiply almost endlessly illus
trations of the Justification of each and
every predicted ill-consequence OF the
Bland Allison dollar coinage both be-
fore and since the 28th of February,
lS78.-1[Mining Record.
RnimleAs Re2mla tim.